


Fire and Water

by SemperAeternumQue



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Broken Families, Fluff, Foreshadowing, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Light Angst, Tumblr Prompt, feanor being a good brother for once, finwe is a bad dad I will die on this hill, i think i did something wrong, i'm sleep-deprived forgive any errors, this was supposed to be happy and now look at it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 10:56:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20813978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SemperAeternumQue/pseuds/SemperAeternumQue
Summary: Feanaro's forge work is interrupted by a curious boy and the conflict of his family.





	Fire and Water

**Author's Note:**

> Hey folks, so I'm actually doing something I'm supposed to be doing. Has Dagor Dagorath come? Anyways, this is a prompt fill for bluedancingkittycat on Tumblr as part of my 50 follower celebration. They asked 'how about a fluffy fic with Feanaro and Arafinwe?' and while some angst crept in, I did my best. Apparently Arafinwe is about Maedhros' age? Anyways that's what I'm using here. Go, enjoy my bullshit writing.

Feanaro stood at his workbench, hammering away on his newest creation. It was to be a necklace for Nerdanel, as he knew one she had liked most had broken, and he wanted to make a suitable replacement.

Hopefully, it would be appreciated. With the children around, it was hard to get time for his craft, so he was choosing to concentrate it on his gift for Nerdanel.

Feanaro stepped back to survey his work so far, debating what kind of gem would suit the rose gold best. Emerald? Sapphire? Or perhaps lapis lazuli?

As he turned to go retrieve some gems for comparison, he almost tripped over a small figure.

“Ouch!” the little golden-haired boy cried.

“Arafinwe!” Feanaro exclaimed, feeling mildly annoyed at his brother’s sudden appearance. “What are you doing here?”

His half-brother looked at the ground. “Atar and Amme are fighting. She says he loves you more than her children.”

Feanaro winced. That was a common source of conflict in his family. Always there was the question of which children Finwe loved best.

Feanaro had always wanted it to be him, but seeing his littlest brother’s dejected face, he wondered if it would even be worth it. He felt terrible for thinking this, but even if Finwe loved Indis’ children over him, it wouldn’t matter for Arafinwe, because Finwe would never love peaceful Arafinwe the way he loved his older children.

Findis was dutiful, Lalwende was brave, and Nolofinwe-well, Nolofinwe was strong and good at negotiations, much as Feanaro disliked it. Arafinwe was quiet, and could easily be seen as weak for how peaceful he was. He was the only member of the family who still tried to break up Feanaro and Nolofinwe’s fights, and the only one who had ever succeeded, by sheer virtue of being the youngest and thus adorable in the other two’s eyes.

Feanaro sighed. “I’m sure Atar loves you and your siblings just like he loves me, Arafinwe.”

“He doesn’t,” Feanaro’s youngest brother replied, “he never pays me any mind.”

Feanaro winced again and resolved himself to leaving the necklace unfinished for today. Family came first, after all.

“He loves you very much Arafinwe, he just is busy,” Feanaro lied. “Come on now, little half-brother. I can teach you how to smith.”

Arafinwe tilted his head up at Feanaro. “Alright,” the younger elf conceded. He let Feanaro lead him to a little anvil and show him the basic hammers and tools, and Feanaro showed him how to pump the bellows.

“You might not be strong enough for this yet, but it will pay off later,” he said.

Arafinwe nodded. “Feanaro, am I not good enough? Is that why no one ever listens?”

“No!” Feanaro exclaimed, surprising himself with the violence of his reaction. “You are a fine member of our house,” _even if I dislike your mother and brother _“even if I don’t always get along well with your mother.”

Arafinwe just nodded again, and Feanaro mentally cursed his father. Truly, Finwe had done a poor job raising the boy.

Feanaro set aside his tools. “Arafinwe, what do you like to do?”

“I like making people feel better,” the golden-haired elfling said seriously. “I like fixing things. I like to read too,” he added shyly.

“Hmm. Well, how about I find you a few books?” Feanaro asked, and let the younger one inside the house. “Nerdanel, my brother’s over!” He called.

“Right, well don’t you two get to arguing!” Nerdanel shouted back.

“No, my youngest brother!” Feanaro hollered, and led Arafinwe to the library, where Arafinwe picked out a book from Feanaro’s small collection and settled himself next to Feanaro.

Feanaro helped him pick out words and letters from the book, one of relatively few that was appropriate for children as well as interesting for them. He made sure to praise Arafinwe on his reading, which really was quite impressive, since he was sure their father never did.

“Good job, Arafinwe! Your reading is coming along very well. Soon you’ll be writing books!”

His brother smiled. “That sounds nice. Maybe I’ll write grand tales of adventure!”

Feanaro laughed. “You’ll have to have some grand adventures first, little one.”

Arafinwe tilted his head to the side. “Perhaps I will write about your grand adventures, Feanaro.” He fiddled with his tunic shyly. “Can-can we read another book?”

They sat in Feanaro’s peaceful library for a long while, finding more books and reading together. Arafinwe seemed to grasp whatever Feanaro taught him from, so Feanaro ended up letting him read more difficult books after a while. Architecture, his few books on healing, politics, the child soaked it up like a sponge. He talked too, eager and young, but already thoughtful and kind. Feanaro supposed he hadn’t had many people listen to him.

Eventually, it got to the time where Finwe and Indis would most certainly be worried about their littlest child, and so Feanaro sent him back on his way with a book or two to read if he wanted.

“I’m sure they’ll be very glad to see you back,” he promised. Arafinwe nodded, but didn’t turn to head out the door just yet.

“Nolo says you’re mean, you know,” The elfling said, almost out of nowhere.

Feanaro wasn’t surprised, as Nolofinwe had never liked him, but it hurt, a little.

“I don’t think you’re mean,” Arafinwe added. “You let me read, and you listened to me. Maybe if Nolo and you did that more too each other, you would like each other better.” He smiled angelically, and went on his merry way home, likely to a worried family.

Feanaro tried to brush what he had said off, but the words followed him through his day. _Maybe if you and Nolo listened to each other more, you would like each other better. _It was almost funny, he thought, the wisdom that came out of the mouths of babes.

Did he want to like Nolo better? Not really. But perhaps, just perhaps, it was worth it for their family’s kind and innocent youngest member.


End file.
